Seattle Gay News
ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT Issue 43, Volume 39, October 28, 2011
Robyn, kinetic star SGN EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW at City Arts Fest Joan Rivers, the ultimate comedienne Robyn October 20 Paramount Theatre
Undoubtedly the highlight of City Arts Fest, Robyn seemed to move mountains by compressing all of Capitol Hill into the glamorous, gilded space of the Paramount Theatre. Her 16-song set, which included two encores, produced the sweatiest gyrations that the city has witnessed in a decade. It is an understatement to say that the kinetic energy of her performance probably generated enough energy last Thursday to power Seattle’s grid system. Mounting the stage against the seductive glow of red backlights and what looked like two giant spinning pinwheels, Robyn materialized through a haze of smoke in what appeared
Robyn
Joan Rivers November 4 Pantages Theater Tacoma Joan Rivers’ career spans almost 50 years, and during that time, she’s done it all. Rivers has starred in numerous television shows, performed countless times on the Tonight Show, hosted her own talk show, produced a wildly successful line of jewelry, won Donald Trump’s Celebrity Apprentice reality game show, and is also a bestselling author. Rivers doesn’t just perform comedy; she lives for it. Rivers has the amazing ability to turn any topic – no matter how controversial or taboo – into a joke. Her courage to acknowledge topics see joan rivers page 32
Joan Rivers
Lily Armani invites SGN EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW fans to Show & Tell Carolee Carmello, Saving Aimee star
shaun knittel/seattle gay news
UMG
see robyn page 32
by Joshua Michael Rumley SGN Contributing Writer
Charles William Bush
by Rahul K. Gairola SGN Contributing Writer
by Shaun Knittel SGN Associate Editor
Lily Armani, the self-proclaimed Oprah of drag queens, court jester, and pop culture historian, got “untucked” for the last time in five years at Neighbours Seattle on October 21. After years of headlining her unscripted drag/comedy show
see armani page 33
Carolee Carmello
by Eric Andrews-Katz SGN A&E Writer Carolee Carmello likes to take chances, and those she has made in her musical theater career have so far paid off. Her first Broadway show was the acclaimed City of Angels, where she met her future husband, Gregg Edelman. She has appeared in Parade, the true story of a white Northerner being wrongly lynched in the South;
Mark Kitao ka
Lily Armani
Lily Armani: unTucked, Lily decided it was time to say goodbye to the show that made her infamous and launch Lily Armani’s Show & Tell. “I’m sick of answering questions about the name of the show,” Lily joked with the closing-night audience of over 200 fans. “My show was called unTucked long before RuPaul had her show!” It’s true. Lily was getting untucked, uncensored, and unscripted long before RuPaul’s Drag Race and RuPaul’s Drag Race Untucked took over Logo TV. In fact, her story doesn’t start at Julia’s on Broadway. She did not debut as a drag queen at the Rendezvous’ JewelBox Theater. Lily had donned her famous ginger hair and drank onstage long before she headlined unTucked at Neighbours Seattle. Her story began in Fort Myers, Florida, by way of Kentucky, on a day that Lily – and the rest of the world – will never forget: September 11, 2001. Just a few weeks prior to her
Falsettos, the story of a man leaving his wife for his homosexual love; Lestat, the vampire musical based on Anne Rice’s bestseller; and most recently the new musical, The Addams Family. It was a musical based on an evangelist brought down by scandal in Saving Aimee that allowed this great talent to make her debut performances in the Emerald City. see carmello page 29